By KT Reporter
Oyam woman MP Santa Alum was put on the new cabinet list as one of the new state ministers but this was immediately opposed by Jimmy Akena who cursed president Museveni for undermining the UPC party. Akena wondered why Museveni never consulted him as the president of the party where Alum belongs.
But it’s clear that Museveni is determined to ignore Akena who was unhappy because he had been fighting hard to undermine Santa Alum for months. He removed her from the position of being UPC whip in parliament and replaced her with Jonathan Odur.
Alum, who is very popular with voters in Oyam was saved by speaker Anita Among who made it clear that Akena was no longer the UPC after the Denis Enap court ruling which declared him a fake party president. This made Akena very angry with Anita Among but he had nothing to do as Alum remained in the position.
Alum had also long been hated by Akena’s wife Betty Amongi who always feared her popularity and feared that Museveni may appreciate her more and put her in cabinet. Amongi was unhappy that even when she is the one who introduced Alum to the president, Museveni liked her very much more to the extent of supporting her financially behind her back yet she is the UPC president. Alum also landed juicy trips abroad, made a lot of money in perdiem and built a good house for herself in the side of Kira.
Amongi tried to spoil her name to the president but Museveni had already investigated and confirmed that he needed such a popular grassroots person in Oyam. Without any support from Akena and Amongi, Alum won her Oyam re-election with a landslide, which angered the UPC first lady even more.
Alum grew her wings and stopped fearing her mentor Amongi who many years ago introduced her to the Oyam politics because she wanted to destroy her old political enemy, Beatrice Lagada. Alum revenged the Amongi-Akena intrigue by openly campaigning for Aceng who was competing with Betty Amongi for the position of Lira city woman MP. Aceng won, which motivated Alum to remain strong.
Now Museveni has put the last nail in the Amongi-Akena political coffin by making Alum a minister and at the same time ignoring and firing Betty Amongi from his cabinet. Akena risks deeper rejection by people of Lango if he continues fighting Museveni’s decision to make Santa Alum minister in order to tap into her Lango-wide popularity.
Alum is one of the new ministers from Lango, the others being Sam Engola and Jane Ruth Aceng who kept her word to politically discipline Betty Amongi who a newspaper recently predicted is politically not going to ever resurrect. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com.
